Cutting Tiny Shapes In Sheet Metal

Green snips are designed to cut clockwise curves and red snips to cut counterclockwise curves.

Cutting tiny shapes in sheet metal.

In our test it cut through rebar like a hot knife through butter. Partings involve cutting the sheet metal along two paths simultaneously. Compound snips also called aviation snips are color coded. When cutting a thin piece of metal precisely you need to make sure to start with a good line and a good mark to follow.

The nibbler is a tool that offers a lot of control over the cut but at the expense of cut width. Tin snips are primarily used for cutting thin sheet metal like tin aluminum brass and thin gauge stainless steel. Place the dremel cutter on the cutting line perpendicularly to the sheet metal. The other tools mainly make round holes and to use them you start by drilling a small pilot hole.

The nibbler shown here is hand operated though drill powered electric and pneumatic versions are also common. If you ve hit it hard enough the chisel will cut the sheet metal if it s thin enough. Install one of the cutoff cutters. Mark the cut line with adhesive tape and draw your cut lines.

Thick using a ferrous metal cutting blade. Sheet metal cutters and nibblers can be used for cutting irregular shapes and for cutting up big sheets but they cannot cut holes less than 25 to 50mm across. Parting is that a cutoff can be nestled perfectly on the sheet metal due to its geometry. It may not be an obvious choice but fitted with the right blade a circular saw is a great metal cutting tool.

Hot metal chips will fly everywhere. Each cut punches out a tiny piece of the sheet metal and the process is repeated. Instead of using a pencil a magic marker or soapstone kevin caron suggests. Hold the tool tight.

Cut metal with your circular saw. The cutters are offset below the handle so you can keep your cutting sheet metal hand above the work and the compound action allows you to cut thicker material with less effort. Simply line up your chisel along the line you are going to cut and strike the back of it with a hammer. With cutoffs the cutting of sheet metal can be done over one path at a time and with partings the shape can not be nestled precisely.

You can cut mild steel up to about 3 8 in. Loosen up the drill head with the provided wrench. Using a chisel and hammer is the most basic form of cutting sheet metal.